Shawdesh desk:

The affiliation of seven government colleges with the University of Dhaka has been creating crises on a regular basis, hampering the academic life of the students of both the university and the colleges.

Former vice-chancellors and student leaders of the university observed that the situation was causing injustice to the students of the university and the colleges.

Currently DU lacked the capacity to take care even of its own students while the decision of affiliation was aimed to increase the quality of education and a sense of ownership among the students, they said.

They called for an immediate and acceptable solution for all by taking into account all related aspects, especially in view of the opinions of the students on both sides.

On February 17, 2017, the government affiliated Dhaka College, Eden Mohila College, Government Shaheed  Suhrawardy College, Kabi Nazrul Government College, Begum Badrunnesa Government Women’s College, Mirpur Government Bangla College and Government Titumir College with Dhaka University.

The then VC of Dhaka University, Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique, told New Age on Thursday that affiliation was granted to the seven colleges following the order of the prime minister to bring all public colleges under public universities at different places around the country.

A gazette was also published by the education ministry in this regard and the decision, too, was implemented by the affiliated colleges in the same year, he said.

The decision, however, was not implemented in any other university, he added.

About an allegation that a proposal was sent from the then DU VC office for affiliating the colleges with the university, he said so far his knowledge went no such proposal was sent from his office at that time.

‘The order [in fact] came from the ministry,’ Arefin Siddique emphasised.

All such colleges across the country were brought under the National University in 1992 in order to unburden the public universities from the responsibilities of those educational institutions offering general degrees.

This year on July 16 the students of the seven DU-affiliated colleges blocked the roads adjacent to New Market demanding re-evaluation of their examination papers to avoid large-scale failures, publishing

of the results within three months of the examinations and lectures by DU teachers.

Meanwhile, in the wake of the DU authorities’ indifference to the problems arising out the affiliations for the DU students, a group of the university’s students blocked the Shahbagh intersection on July 17 and 18 last demanding an end to the university’s affiliation to the colleges.

They also demanded separate certificates in separate colour and design to the students of the affiliated colleges mentioning the names of colleges until the institutions’ affiliation was cancelled, automation of the university’s administrative and academic activities, controlling the traffic of outsiders on the campus and fixing rickshaw fares for the university area.

They also staged demonstration for their demands by boycotting classes and examinations between July 21 and July 24.

On Wednesday last, Bangladesh Chhatra League activists obstructed the demonstration by the protesters and allegedly beat two university students.

On Thursday, the demonstrating students postponed their protest as the university authorities formed a committee to examine their demands and submit a report on them.

Dhaka University Central Student Union vice-president Nurul Huq Nur told New Age on Wednesday that 99 per cent DU students wanted cancellation of the affiliation to the colleges.

‘As an autonomous body the university should take all decisions regarding it by itself,’ he said, adding, ‘If the university administration has a strong backbone it can cancel the affiliations immediately.’

Professor Abdul Mannan, former chairman of the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh for the 2015-2018 tenure, told New Age on Thursday that before the formation of the National University

the affiliated colleges were under DU, Chittagong University and Rajshahi University.

There was an office of Inspector of Colleges for these three universities which had a big structure with sufficient manpower and a big controller of examination office, he said further.

Then the examinations were held centrally and at a time, he said, adding that currently the universities did not have that manpower and infrastructure for handling other colleges.

He urged the authorities to strengthen the capacity of the office of Inspector of Colleges and the controller of examinations.

Another former VC of the university, Professor SMA Faiz, said that DU was established in a residential-cum-tutorial system model but in the Pakistan period the colleges in East Pakistan affiliated with the University of Calcutta came under it.

After the formation of the National University in 1992 with its affiliating mandate all affiliated colleges came under it, he continued.

In 2017, the government suddenly brought seven colleges under DU while the students of the colleges demanded timely exams and evaluation of answer papers and DU students, on the other hand, protested the affiliations considering them as extra burden for the university, he said.

He mentioned an incident that took place in July 2017 when a third-year political science student of Titumir College Siddique Rahman lost an eye when he joined a demonstration at the Shahbagh intersection demanding timely exam schedules.

A tear gas canister fired by the police hit him showing a video.

‘There are justified demands on both sides,’ he said, adding, ‘It will definitely be an injustice to the students if they are brought under the university and again sent back.’

He urged the administrations of the UGC, DU and National University to work out an acceptable solution for all students concerned without any further delay.

The administrations should also meet the representatives of the students and teachers associations, he added.

Another former VC of the university, Professor AK Azad Chowdhury, said that the quality of higher education was poor in Bangladesh, which was true mostly for the students under the National University.

He has observed that the National University has no responsibility and authority over the colleges under it as most of the teachers and staff members in these colleges are appointed by the government.

At the tertiary level there are currently 36 to 40 lakh students in the country under the National University, some 80 per cent of whom study in colleges across the country and students in these colleges have no sense of ownership and belonging, he observed.

AK Azad said that the quality of students of the National University did not improve in years due to this duality.

He said that in an ideal situation the affiliation would increase the sense of ownership of the students, encourage them in studies and improve the quality of education.

‘At present it is almost impossible to take examinations, evaluation and maintain standard of the seven colleges’ having three to five lakh students with the DU’s existing set up having 2,500 teachers and 43,000 students,’ the educationist said.

He observed that this is why the session jams were seen while the DU students protested as the university did not take care of them properly.

The demand of the DU students was justified in this case while the prime minister’s decision of creating a sense of ownership among the

students was also justified, he continued.

He suggested affiliating the colleges under new public universities or establishing some universities at divisions for the same purpose.

The immediate past VC of Dhaka University, Professor AAMS Arefin Siddique, also said that the current situation was created due to absence of proper management.

He observed that these seven colleges should be managed easily by the DU authorities by taking initiatives like reducing the workload of the teachers.